1. Field of the Invention
The invention described herein relates to the creation of connector modules adapted to be positioned on a carrier belt and, the resulting belt of connector modules.
The invention can be utilized particularly within the scope of a device and a station for crimping contacts onto flexible circuits, a station designed for the assembly and creation of bundles of flexible circuits provided with connectors, the contacts and the flexible circuits being taken up in connector modules.
A complete automatic crimping station comprising a crimping post for the modules conforming to the invention can have an automated intake device for these connectors with their premounted contacts.
2. Description of Prior Development
In order to bring the connectors to a complete automatic crimping station, it is known to link the connector modules to one another, for example, as described in the document EP 0 460,634. This document provides the connector modules with tabs on the rear face of the connectors, these tabs being taken up in a system of slots at the front of the preceding connector module. This system remains rigid and is poorly adapted to coiling of the connectors.
Moreover, the creation of support coils for surface mounting is known, these coils being made of plastic belts provided with housings for the components.
The invention proposes creating connector modules designed to be positioned on a carrier belt. For this purpose, the connector modules engage onto a carrier belt and for their engagement principally have clipping pins furnished with catches that hook into holes in the carrier belt.
These clipping pins can be arranged on the tabs extending from the body of the module in a direction parallel to the carrier belt, the tabs possibly able to contain breakaway zones that can be cut so as to disconnect the modules from the belt at the level of an intake post for the connectors or to cut them after removal of the modules from the belt.
Connector modules according to the invention can be provided in rolls or coils, since a device for feeding into a station for crimping, cabling or insertion of the electrical contacts thus has a post for continuous unrolling and, after the unrolling post, there is a device for disconnecting the connectors from the carrier belt and a device for intake of the connector units.
Advantageously for connector modules of the type provided with a slot for access to the crimping zone and also provided with a shutter for holding the flexible circuit, the shutter can have a framework connected by a hinge to the connector casing taking up the contacts, the carrier belt can be provided with flaps inserted between the shutter and the rear part of the module making up the crimping slot, and the modules may be pre-equipped or not with their contacts.
In one particularly advantageous mode of embodiment of the invention, the catches as well as the holes in the belt receiving them may have a rectangular profile, whose long axis is parallel to the belt and to the axis of the contacts in the connector.
Such an arrangement of the catches flattens the connector onto the belt and permits making only two attachment points for the connector onto the belt, advantageously at the end of the arm positioned at the rear of the connector provided in the crimping zone on the flexible circuit, the connector being positioned on the belt so as to be pulled by the catches during progression of the belt and to present its rear part in front of the progression.
An additional advantage endowed by the rectangular profile of the pins is keeping the connector aligned on the belt in the case where one of the arms bearing the catches breaks, the rectangular profile preventing the connector from rotating around the remaining pin.
The flap, for its part, prevents an accidental closing of the shutters when the modules are provided there.